Cute hair doodads for gifting (tutorial)

Back two years ago when we all at once had a new baby and felt the sting of what the British call "redundancy" not once but twice, Yorktown Owens started getting really creative about gift giving.  This morning, I am sharing with you one of our favorite DIYs, first inspired by some super cutie stuff I liked on etsy and inspired by some of the many felt flower tutorials we've seen on One Pretty Thing.

They're super easy to make, and everyone loves them.  We use repurposed fabric for ours.  Here's our version.

You will need these supplies:

*Some elastic headbands that come several to a pack from someplace cheap where they're probably mass-produced in a sweatshop (unless you can find a better way to procure them).

*A hot glue gun.  Don't buy a cheap one.  We did this and mine epically exploded.  It was terrifying and hilarious all at once.

*Templates for cutting fabric.  I generally just use cookie cutters like the one above and other round or flower-shaped objects.

*A white crayon or something similar to trace on the fabric.  I use some superskinny oil pastels I have or cheap white eyeliner.  Probably there is a better way to do this.  I sucked at home ec, so I wouldn't know.

*Fiskars, preferably cute pink or purple ones.  Mine are county orange, like my soul.

*Needle and thread.  And probably a thimble.

*Rick-rack, ribbon, lace, cute buttons, other notions.  I pick them up at garage sales and repurpose old clothes for them.

*Wine.  Preferably a malbec but for summer, a gewurztraminer will work.

*A girlfriend or two to talk to while you work and give them to when finished.  I had Tina.  Tina is precious.

*Some felt and other fabric.  I like to use a mix of lace, felt and miscellaneous old clothes I have taken apart because they no longer worked for one reason or another but I just love love love the fabric.  

Speaking of repurposing fabrics, I was super thrilled to see my extra fabulous mother-in-law wearing a rosette she'd made from two robot costumes her boys had worn when they were little, one gold and one silver.  This is a woman who owns glam.  She epitomizes style and grace. I have to make one of these soon:

Anyway, back to the hair doodad project.  It's just so easy.  You trace and cut out a ton of different sized fabric pieces.  I catch up on my favorite shows on Hulu while I'm doing this.

Then you have some of these.  I like just making a ton so you can spread them out and decide which you like together.  It's kind of fun...I have a whole basket of them.

Then you stack them up to your pleasure, like so.

You can sew through them with a button on top, as I did here:

Or just sew through them and make a little "X" on top; that's really cute if you use contrasting thread.

At this point, you can hot glue it to some old plain hair clip you have lying around like so:

(this is Tina rocking the one I made for her)

Or you can cut a length of grosgrain, lace, etc., kind of measure around your head with it, and then cut one of those elastic headbands apart so you can close the fabric up with it.  This makes your headband stretchy.

Here I used some vintage lace I picked up at a garage sale, where a very nice lady let me fill a whole grocery bag with vintage notions for like three bucks (I now own shades of rick rack I didn't know existed, and lord knows I love rick rack).  It was a special day for me!

As a I child of the 70s-early 80s, I was destined to love rick rack.

In the picture above, I just used a little bit there.  

Next, you glue your flower to the band.  I put mine kind of on the side.  I use another piece of felt to secure it on the bottom side, like so:

Notice here how I actually made this one from rick rack glued to bias tape.

There are tons of other variations you all can come up with on this, I am certain.  Just be careful with that hot glue; it can be tricky business for the craft-challenged like me!

Anyway, it dries in a snap and then you're ready for the ball.

There you have it!  Have fun.  Peace, everybody.